Sunday, 22 April 2018

It's National Stationery Week!

It's National Stationery Week!

I've teamed up with the amazing people that created National Stationery Week. These are the same people that run the UK's only stationery trade show, The London Stationery Show!I am a huge lover of stationery and so this collaboration sounded like a dream for me.I want to invite you all to celebrate National Stationery Week with me. This runs from Monday the 23rd of April to Sunday the 29th of April. It's actually it's seventh year running so it's going well so far!So how is National Stationery Week actually celebrating stationery? What does this involve doing?Well...let me tell you!The aim of this week is to encourage everybody to write more by hand. Put away the technology and do it the old-fashioned way. Let's take away the 'old-fashioned' label and bring hand-writing back. Handwritten documents seem to be disappearing before our eyes and computers and smart phones are taking over. I want to remind you all throughout this week why it's not always the best decision to use technology over handwritten pieces.

National Stationery Week is getting bigger and bigger each year with more and more people joining in the celebrations.

"Last year 74.5 million people, both online and in print, saw or heard information about the week and it generated nearly 200 pieces of national press coverage, inspired the use of a bespoke NSW franking stamp by Royal Mail, and reached 30,000 stationery fans on social media. Contacts with stationery lovers were made in over 90 countries worldwide and 100 retailers ran their own National Stationery Week promotions, ably assisted by suppliers".- The National Stationery Week TeamSo this year, each day of the week has been allocated a fun paper or writing product-led theme and is being managed by a different brand each day.Each brand will be hosting their own competitions where you can win some stationery goodies yourself so be sure to follow them too!I was very kindly sent a big bundle of stationery and so I'll be talking about those pieces over on my other social medias so it will be kind of an unboxing / first impressions which I thought would be a bit more fun than throwing them in a blog post!

Monday the 23rd of AprilSo Monday is being hosted by Nuco International.Nuco want to focus on creating affordable yet stylish designs for everyday writing. They have recently released their new 'Spectrum' range which is a gorgeous vibrant collection of colourful notebooks. The design is simple and so makes it very versatile and the perfect on-the-go accessory! The notebooks are very clean in design, yet bold in colour. Go check them out, they have a wide range of designs, not just the spectrum collection, they have something for everyone, no matter what your style is! :)

The official hashtag for Monday the 23rd of April is #MAKEANOTEFor each day of the week I am going to be sharing some creative ideas with you over on Snapchat and Instastories. But also featuring set posts on all my social medias so be sure to follow me to keep up with those!On Monday I'll be giving you all a video introduction to the Spectrum Notebook and giving you a long list of ideas on what you could use it for and how I personally am using mine! Along with some reasons as to why notebooks are an essential over typing notes on your phone.You can keep up to date with Nuco's journey and competitions this week by following them on Facebook or Twitter!Tuesday the 24th of AprilTuesday is going to be a takeover for Staedtler. I'm sure you've all heard of Staedtler as they are a very popular stationery brand. One of their bestsellers is the black pigment liner and so they bought the same quality pen out but in different colours! The ink is even waterproof! I'm going to be testing it out and showing you different craft ideas for these pens so keep an eye out for that!

Follow the hashtag #PENANDPENCIL to join the journey and see what other bloggers and press are doing to celebrate this coming Tuesday.Follow Staedtler on Facebook and Twitter for exciting opportunities and great ideas!!Wednesday the 25th of AprilWednesdays main focus is the big event, The London Stationery Show. It is an annual trade show and is held at the Business Design Centre in London so if you find yourself nearby I'd really recommend popping by! The show is also open on Tuesday too! This is a great way to discover lots of new brands, stock up on stationery and see brand new lines before anyone else. I'm sure there will be lots of great deals and exciting events going on through out the day

Follow the tag #STATIONERYTHEWORLDOVER to see how the day goes if you can't get there yourself!If you need anymore information on the event please head over to www.stationeryshow.co.ukThursday the 26th of AprilThis day might be a bit more exciting for those people who buy their stationery based on aesthetics. A bit like myself. Rather than practicality I tend to buy a notebook if it's much more pretty and would look good on my shelf OR quirkiness is a big one. Something a bit different always stands out at me and so Thursday would be a good one if you feel the same way, as it is been managed by Mustard. Mustard offer very colourful, stylish and very unique stationery, this makes their products perfect for gifting or for bloggers and Instagram addicts! They do the most amazing t-rex highlighter which I was kindly sent and it's just so cool! Oh so retro!

You can check out Mustard's social media and keep an eye on their awesome products and maybe even win some over on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.Follow the hashtag #WORKHAPPY to get ideas on how you can funk up your office and make your work day a bit more T-errefic with the T-rex collection.Friday the 27th of AprilThis is probably the day I'm most excited for. As you all know by now I am a big fan of Santoro London products. This is a brand I have worked with before and you can read the post I worked on them with here. Santoro London have the cutest and widest variety of products and their stationery is just to die for!This day focuses on storing your stationery. It's all very well having a huge bundle of pens and pencils but if you have nowhere cute to store them it can quickly become untidy!

I'm really excited to show you all through some of the Santoro storage solutions over on snapchat and insta-stories/. I think I might celebrate with a bit of a haul video where I show you all their pieces and what I'm storing in mine. They sent over a VERY helpful piece of stationery that's going to be perfect for me and I'm excited to share it with you!Follow Santoro over on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for lots of exciting ideas! Perfect if you have younger girls in the family too!The official hashtag is #APLACEFOREVERYTHINGSaturday the 27th of AprilI was very lucky to receive a lovely bundle of gifts from all the brands involved and the item I got most excited about was a set of metallic markers by Spectrum Noir.

I'm a huge fan of anything metallic lately and actually have a project lined up that I cannot WAIT to announce and I was very much in need of a copper marker so it couldn't have been better timing! The markers are dual tipped and highly reflective and non fading. I'm really intrigued myself to find out more about the Spectrum Noir brand and so I know I personally will be following along on their social media to see what they are promoting this week, join me? Search the hashtag #GETCRAFTY to see how other people are using theirs!Also follow Spectrum Noir over on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.Sunday the 28th of AprilThe last day will be held by Cross. A.T. Cross is a very luxurious brand that was actually founded by jewellery makers and artisans and they have been creating very prestigious pieces longer than any other company in the western world. They sent me over a very special item which I'll be showing you all properly on Sunday and I can't wait!

If you want to have a nosey at some higher end, more special stationery head over to their Facebook and Twitter or their website and check it out.My original plan for this post was to go through all the reasons that writing matters but instead I thought I would do that each day in individual posts throughout the week to keep it more interesting for you guys and have subjects to talk to you about rather than bombarding you all at once. So instead this is more of an informative schedule for the week. I hope you all get involved, follow the journey and celebrate yourselves! Remember it's not just about the products, it's the reasons behind them! I'd love to know if any of you attend The London Stationery Show on Tuesday or Wednesday! I'd also quickly love to thank all of the National Stationery Week team for selecting me to be part of this awesome event, Santoro London for nominating me for the opportunity, G F Smith for putting together such a thoughtful and practical parcel for me and of course all the brands involved for their generosity. I can't wait to celebrate with you all.

All the best,

Disclaimer: This was a collaboration with National Stationery Week. I was sent a bundle of products on their behalf. This is not a paid collaboration. Photos are my own other than logos from National Stationery Week.